The Last Night of the World
by Alithea
Summary: On an abandoned colony Sally Po stands off against her greatest foe. Takes place about twenty-six years after the series. Warning for character death.


**Title:** The Last Night of the World  
 **Rating:** PG-13  
 **Summary:** On an abandoned colony Sally Po stands off against her greatest foe.  
 **Warnings:** Character death.  
Characters are not mine. I am just borrowing.

* * *

Sally Po looked up at the clock on the wall out of habit. It was cracked along its face and the digital numbers no longer showed, just the empty grey of the screen. She let out a breath and then clicked the clip into her sidearm before holstering it. Things had gotten too far out of hand, and now she was one of the only ones left who could fix them. She shook her head and corrected the thought. She was one of the only ones who _would_ fix them.

It was all quite tiring. She never imagined she would have soldiered for so long, but there she was approaching her mid-forties, missing an eye, a shoulder that liked to dislocate itself, and a knee replacement. She was in hostile territory, and probably facing her last stand, but fighting on. Fighting for a cause, for justice, and, perhaps, because she didn't know how to do anything else.

There was a click behind her and she turned quickly drawing her gun. The man held up his hands and she steadily put the weapon away. He raised an eyebrow.

"You've always been too damn quiet, Barton." She said and looked back up at the broken clock. Then she looked at her wrist watch. Not very much longer, perhaps twenty more minutes of waiting. It might be less.

"Lifetime of working on my stealth skills." He replied and then smiled as he noted, "You hung around Nichol too much. You picked up his habits."

"I spent far too much time with all of you boys really."

"You're sure about this?"

Sally nodded. She looked the man over, always wanting to call him young. "I wonder, Barton, if it was wise to trust you."

"I do have a reputation."

"Yes, a solid one as an infiltrator and double agent." She started to pace about the room. Everything was cracked and decaying. They had been attacked earlier in the day, and their small base was now mostly ruins. Granted the remnants of the colony had been falling apart for a while. Life support was only operational in the small sector Sally and Trowa had made repairs in. She picked up a rifle and nodded towards the door. There could be no more waiting.

Trowa Barton nodded back at her. He remained an enigma. He still ran the circus, but would come out and assist with jobs every so often. A child soldier turned into a soldier for hire, and it was hard to say what he had ever truly believed in, but he generally knew which side to pick to stay alive. That was where Sally found she was unsure about her choice. If he shot her in the back though she might be able to forgive him.

"Before we go," Trowa started, "can I ask you something?"

"Sure." She put her hand on the door frame and tugged at the collar of her uniform jacket. It wasn't Preventer issue. It was older, from the time of the Romerfeller Foundation, maroon, and with rank pins for a colonel. A bit theatrical, much like the extremely intricate way she had her hair braided, but there was a need for theatrics given her enemy.

"When were you sure this was what you had to do?"

Sally looked at the ground and said, "When I realized I would never be able to quit? I can't just surrender, Trowa. I owe them all more than that after all this time. I owe you. I owe myself a proper conclusion."

Trowa nodded.

They walked out of the room together and took separate paths.

Sally didn't get very far before running into her first bit of trouble. Three enemies appeared and she took them out quickly, but not very quietly. She moved on as fast as she could, dodging capture, removing obstacles, and waiting for the opportunity to fire. Then her goal came into sight.

She crouched behind a piece of rubble and waited. There would be a sniper, because old habits died hard for some, and there was possibly a makeshift minefield as well. It was just as well though, because she didn't need to actually get into the building. She just needed her target to come out, and her target would come out, because the woman would want to gloat.

"Attention!"

Sally smiled as the woman's voice blared from a megaphone. Dramatics, and gloating, that woman always had to gloat.

"You've nowhere left to go, Preventer Po. Time to give up."

Sally pulled a small grenade out of her pocket and quickly tossed it over to the steps of the building. It was shot out of the air by a maze of lasers, barely making a pop as it was disintegrated. She shrugged, lasers were new, but things did change.

"You're sloppy. What would _he_ say about such a display?"

Sally clenched her fist and took a deep breath. She counted slowly to herself and then charged forward when she heard two rather impressive explosions in the locations of the lasers. Through the smoke she tossed another grenade towards the sniper tower. Backup soldiers made their way down the steps towards her and she fired into them. She didn't need to live. If Trowa had done what he said he would do she had already won.

The pain of a bullet to her shoulder brought her to her knees and she was violently wrenched to the ground and held in place with a boot.

"Don't shoot her," the woman commanded. "Not yet."

The smoke began to clear and Sally was forced to her knees. She watched as the woman descended the stairs. Long blond hair billowed behind her from under a salvaged but tarnished silver mask. The woman smiled victoriously and Sally chuckled.

"Is defeat funny to you," the woman asked.

"No," Sally replied. "Don't you ever have any original ideals, princess?"

The woman rushed down the steps and struck her across the face.

"I'll take that as a no," Sally sputtered, and then spit the blood out of her mouth. The woman had learned how to inflict pain quite well over the years. Though she had always been more expert at it than anyone ever expected. Even in the past. Even before her iron fisted betrayal ruined everything.

"All this time you've held on, and for what?" The woman asked. "You failed, your lot. You couldn't keep the fires from spreading."

"There was a solution," Sally stated, " but you voted against it as Foreign Minister. Your ideals at the time remained adamant. They only ever changed when you lost something." And she had, Sally could at least concede to that, but no more than anyone else who had been in the Gundam Wars. No more than even those that fought as Preventers.

"The galaxy," the woman began, "The Earth, the Colonies, the outer outposts are all safer now under my control."

"But not free."

The woman laughed. "Freedom doesn't exist, Preventer Po." She took out a pistol and held it to Sally's head. "Any last words?"

"They aren't for you."

The woman cocked the trigger of the gun, but it was shot out from her hand. She screamed, and shouted, "Find that rat Trowa Barton! He's not far!"

Soldiers fanned out and the woman grabbed Sally by the lapels of the uniform she was wearing. "Where is he?"

"I don't know."

"I don't need a gun to kill you, Sally."

"I know." She was dropped to the ground with a huff.

"You look ridiculous in that ancient uniform."

"And you look stupid in your brother's mask. Relena... Peacecraft? Darlian? Relena Marquis? You could never decide who you were."

"I am the ruler of this galaxy," Relena stated, "And, you, are a hopeless rebel undermining my authority."

Sally smiled and nodded. "Your brother would have been on my side. The boys, the Preventers, and so many of the others we lost would have been on my side."

"Well, they never made it through, did they? All lost under the old ways. I haven't lost a thing since I took over." Relena stated sharply.

"But everyone else has."

There was shouting in the distance and then gunfire. Then there was silence. Relena smiled, and took off the mask. She had a scar that ran diagonally across her face. Her eyes were sharp and hard. The remainder of her soldiers stood at perfect attention, faces shielded behind their helmets. It had become a perfect fear tactic never letting the public see the faces of the soldiers and police that enforced the law.

"Poor Trowa. I don't know why he decided to help you in the end. He'd sworn he was well out of it, probably to protect that _sister_ of his. Just goes to show you can't trust anyone." She turned to a soldier and commanded, "Sidearm."

The soldier did as he was told.

"No one is left to save you, Sally. I'd considered, for a brief moment, making a spectacle of your arrest just in case you had any other followers. But after this," she pointed to the scar, "Well, I just had to make sure I took care of you myself."

"I know." She shut her eye and took a deep breath. Then she looked up into Relena's eyes and said, "The Lady sends her regards."

Relena pulled the trigger and Sally fell to ground. She handed the sidearm back to the soldier. He took it and looked at the still body on the ground.

"Marquis?"

Relena turned. "Yes, soldier."

The soldier fired the remainder of the gun's bullets into the woman's chest. He removed the helmet, and tossed it to the ground. The remaining soldiers did the same.

"I did it for her."

End.


End file.
